tiger lily

I am a long time fan of Heather Ross and LOVE her latest fabric line, Tiger Lily, especially those little ballerinas.  Another baby quilt, based almost completely off this quilt, and I am not finished with this design.  I love it, expect to see it again soon.

 Backing, girls in trees.

binding was hard for me.  I didn't have enough of any of the fabric to bind it, so I went with these feathers.  I love how subtle they are.

 Minimally quilted to keep it soft.  This corner is probably my favorite.

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  37in x 48in (after washing and drying)

Pattern:  Inspiration here.  Half square triangles (started with 5in squares).

Fabric:  front--Kona Snow and Tiger lily and pink solids.  back--Tiger Lily by Heather Ross for Wyndham.  binding--Wonderland, Cheshire Feathers

Batting:  Warm and White

Four Square

This is one of those quilts that I didn't really like until it was finished.  I started those blocks several years ago and put them away when I wasn't really feeling it anymore.  

A year or so later I pinned this quilt and knew I could make these 4 patch blocks work. 

I used Kona Essex Linen for sashing, and (I know I am going to be in the minority here) it was not my favorite to work with.  I'm not exactly sure what I didn't like about it, maybe the weight, and it definitely frayed easier.  But anyway, it's really pretty.  I do love the way it looks and in the end it turned out really great.

 I quilted figure 8's, my first time trying this pattern.  I used the grid in the quilt pattern as a guide and I love how it turned out.  I will definitely try it again.

I gave this quilt to my in-laws for Christmas.  I feel like it is a mellow enough pattern and fabrics are "neutral" enough to go with just about anything.

Quilt stats:

Size:  67in x 67in

Pattern:  none (each block measured 8.5 inches.  I strip pieced it.  Each strip was 2.5 inches.  I sewed 4 together and then flipped each row). 

Fabric:  4 patch blocks are mostly Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter.  Sashing is Kona Essex linen in Flax.  Binding is Denyse Schmidt, Hope Valley

Batting:  Warm and White.

Mountain Majesties

I gave this quilt to my sister for Christmas, and can finally share it here on my blog.  After making this quilt (and this one), I can finally say I LOVE solids.  Not that I didn't like them before, but when shopping for fabric, I will generally always reach for prints over solids.  

But I think I might be changing my mind...Bold geometrics designs are everywhere right now, and solids sure do make a stronger statement than prints.

Several months ago, I took of screenshot of this instagram and I knew I had to make that rug into a quilt.  I love how it turned out...

 I used this gold stripe again.  It's still the perfect mustardy yellow. 

 Feathers on the backing.  

 I quilted in the ditch vertically and horizontally, with both white and black thread.  There was no way to keep the quilting thread completely hidden, but switching threads turned out to be pretty great.

Quilt stats:

Pattern:  Mountains Majesties, from Quiltville

Fabric:  front--Kona Black and Kona Snow.  back--Wonderland, Cheshire Feathers (Art Gallery).  Binding--Fantasia, Monokeros Stripe Ocre (Art Gallery)

Batting:  Warm and White

Pineapple Quilt

 This is another quilt I photographed in The Smoky Mountains. 

I love this quilt, one of my very favorites.  It plays with your eyes.  Almost feels like it's moving. 

Amanda-Jean posted a tutorial, a year or so ago, and I couldn't resist trying it.  I love the pineapple block and this tutorial doesn't use paper piecing!  These blocks are labor intensive, lots of sewing and lots of trimming.  I cannot remember how long each block took to make, but I could really only get one block done per sitting.

I used all scraps and stash, but went with a specific color palette, plums and teals and fuchsias and grass green and orange.  I used this image as my inspiration.

I had the hardest time deciding on a pattern for quilting.  I ended up quilting lines, so they intersected in the middle of the block, and went through every "pineapple".  I also stitched in the ditch around every block.  I'm still not certain I picked the right pattern, I feel like it might need more quilting.  On the plus side, it's a very soft quilt.

Bound in a pink stripe.  Can you see there are two pink stripes?  That was a make-do moment.  (As was the backing, I used larger pieces of orange, green, and fuchsia from my stash!)

Stats:

Pattern:  Pineapple block Tutorial by Amanda Jean (I made 20 blocks--4 x 5) 

Size:  61.5in x 77in (after washing)

Batting:  Warm and White

Fabric:  Stash and scraps.  Background is all low volume.  Binding is mostly Monokeros Stripe Candy by Sara Lawson.

Quilty Christmas

Happy New Year!  I cannot believe December is over!  I fully expected to post all my finishes from 2015 before the New Year...but I didn't.  The good news is, I have several finished quilts to share over the next few days (or weeks, as it usually is).  The first one being a Christmas Quilt.  I hope you will forgive me for bringing back Christmas in January.

I started this quilt a year ago with Lori Holt.  She hosted an Instagram quilt-along last December.  I had the funnest time putting this quilt together.  It's so different than what I usually sew, definitely cuter.  Most of the blocks are in her Quilty Fun book, but several were freebies she shared on Instagram.

 The original quilt was meant to be a wall hanging, but I made extra blocks so we could use it as a throw blanket.

 Quilted in an all-over cross-hatch pattern.

 The backing might be my favorite part...it's so soft!  We like to pretend those deer are actually reindeer.

Candy Cane Stripe binding is a must on a Christmas Quilt.

Stats

Pattern:  Quilty Fun by Lori Holt

Size:  49in x 60in (after washing)

Batting:  Warm and White

Fabric:  Stash and scraps.  Backing is Buck Forest by Bonnie Christine, Binding is Little Red by Tasha Noel

Cheerio!

I love this quilt.  For Thanksgiving we traveled to the Smoky Mountains and I don't often take photos of my quilts on location, but this time I did.  For those who've been there, this was along the Cades Cove loop. 

Every once in a while, a quilt block comes along that is fun to make and I whip through them.  This was one of them.  

I used this gold print from Art Gallery Fabrics, I think it's from April Rhodes, Arizona collection, for the binding.

I quilted it in this cross hatch pattern, which takes forever, but looks very cool when it's done.  My lines are about 1.5 inches apart.  I used the pattern of the snowball blocks as my guide, so I didn't have to mark anything.  (Yay!)

backing came from my stash.  Feathers and woodgrain.  

Details:  

Pattern:  Cheerio by Camille Roskelley

Size:  64in X 75 in (after washing)

batting:  warm and white cotton batting.

fabric:  mostly stash, those feather are from Martha Negley and are pretty old, but a favorite!  

Sunset Quilt

Another baby quilt for a friend and this one was a little hard to part with.  I really like it, and think I need to duplicate it in a bigger version, and try different colors, particularly one for a boy (quilt meausures 40x48in).

 Inspiration for this quilt found here.

 I almost bound it in a pink polka dot, but then I remembered I had these sweet, tiny hearts, and they were perfect.

I quilted around each square.  I mostly quilted in the white, so my white thread wouldn't stand out on the black

Sweet little Heather Ross Ballerinas on the back.

(fabric colors: here)

Cross Quilt

Everytime I see a quilt like this on instagram or on a blog, I want to make one myself.  The contrast of black and white is so striking.  Plus, black and white totally works for boy or girl.  

It seems like all my friends are having babies, and I've been busy making quilts.  I love baby quilts.  such fast projects, and this one was just that!  Quick!  I sewed the top together in a short afternoon before my kids came home from school, and then quilted it in about the same time.

I love this minty print by April Rhodes (Triangle Tokens), a perfect gender neutral print.  This might be my favorite fabric right now.  I love the color and the little triangles (some are gold!).

 bound in a goldish yellow stripe.

also wanted to let you all know that Fat Quarter Shop is having a big sale on the ever popular Cotton + Steele Fabrics.  Check it out!  Sale ends Sunday, Oct 4.

use code: CS2015